LeBron James set a record. "Cleveland" won

"It's definitely been a challenging year", Love said after Thursday's morning shootaround. "Nobody's going to feel sorry for us, so the only thing you can do is come out and play with pride and prove the fact that we're a better team than we showed tonight".

Kevin Love wasn't thrilled about being named the starting center for Game 2 of the Cleveland Cavaliers' second-round showdown with the Toronto Raptors - but you wouldn't know it by looking at his final stat line.

LeBron James scored 43 points as the Cleveland Cavaliers powered to a 128-110 victory over the Toronto Raptors on Thursday (Friday in Manila) to take a commanding 2-0 lead in their National Basketball Association second-round playoff series.

LeBron finished with 43 points, 14 assists and eight rebounds.

He added eight rebounds, narrowly missing his second straight triple-double, and connected on 19 of 28 attempts in a performance so dominant that the beleaguered Raptors' city was being called "LeBronto" by the time the night was over. He's averaging 34.5 points, 13.5 assists and 9.5 rebounds in the two semifinals games.

Love has spent the majority of his 10-year professional career as a power forward. "That's a huge game for him".

"That drains you mentally and physically", Toronto coachDwane Casey told reporters. "We have some matchup issues all over the court". Toronto was an excellent regular season team and has several nice pieces in place around Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan. James scored 27 points after the break, as Cavs built an insurmountable lead. He was the reason the Cavaliers are up 2-0 in this second-round series against Toronto. The Raptors had not lost consecutive home games since dropping Games 3 and 4 of the second round to Cleveland last May. Still, he helped drag Cleveland into overtime en route to a 113-112 win in the series opener Tuesday, giving the Cavs oodles of confidence headed into Game 2.

The Raptors went into the game 6-1 all-time in playoff Game 2's at home, winners of four straight of those games.

"We just we need more effort, way more effort", Lowry said. That's what point we're at now.

Cleveland takes 2-0 series lead with 128-110 victory.

"We will not let our guards down", James promised.

Boston continued its surge in the third quarter to take the lead, and while 76ers kept it within a one-possession game late, Celtics held on.

A person with knowledge of the details says the Knicks have agreed to hire Fizdale to replace Jeff Hornacek, who was sacked last month after two seasons. Green is scoring 15 points per game while shooting 75 percent. When Toronto's best players gave so much and still fell short, the Raptors have to wonder how much more should they ask?

If he bring his play from the first two games to Philadelphia, the series may be shorter than expected.

Jayson Tatum explodes for the dunk.

A layup by Dario Saric cut it to 104-101. After a almost flawless 48 minutes of basketball, it was the Raptors who were left tip-toeing on the edge of a sweep.

The situation certainly looked dire for the Celtics earlier, as they trailed 48-26 with a little more than six minutes remaining before half-time. But Boston finished the half on a 25-8 run to cut the halftime deficit to five.

This seems to be a theme with Flair, who was confident heading into the series...

The Cavs shot 59 per cent on the night, including 73 per cent in the third quarter. Raptors in 7 games.

Prior to Thursday, Brown had started every game he'd appeared in this season.

The Raptors, seeded first in the East for the first time, thought things would be different this season.

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